Association of Tourism Trade Organizations, India (ATTOI), in association with Tourism News Live has conducted a one-day seminar on Modern Trends in Tourism Marketing on November 27, 2018. The seminar, held at the Kerala Institute of Travel and Tourism Studies (KITTS) Auditorium in Thiruvananthapuram, was inaugurated by Rajasree Ajith, Director of KITTS.

Vinod CS, President of ATTOI, delivered the welcome speech. He mentioned the innovative ideas set forth by ATTOI for the development of tourism in the state, ever since its inception. The Yoga Ambassadors Tour organized in association with the AYUSH ministry in June 2018 was a great success, which has given new life to the then dormant tourism industry, following the fear of Nipah outbreak.

Vinod C S, ATTOI, President

“We are going through a hard time for the tourism sector now. Once we recovered from the Nipa virus, floods came, making the things worse. The recent issues related to Sabarimala and the surprise strikes in the state have also been pulling back the progress of the tourism industry, despite the efforts from the stakeholders and the government,” said Vinod.

While delivering the inaugural address, Rajasree Ajith lauded the incessant efforts of ATTOI for the revival of the tourism sector in the state.

Rajasree Ajith, Director, KITTS

“I have been part of the International Conference on Tourism Technologies India (ICTT), organized by ATTOI and it was proved to be a successful event. I would like to thank them for their sincere efforts in the field of the tourism industry and hope they will continue these efforts intact in future also,” said Rajasree Ajith.

The inaugural session of the seminar was conducted by Rajeev Devaraj, Editor, News18 Kerala. Rajeev talked about the new trends in Digital Marketing.

Rajiv Devaraj, Editor, News 18

“It is a relevant subject in the modern tourism industry. Though I am working in a news channel, I am a keen observer of the Tourism industry and the happenings social media. I am here to share some of my findings about the use of social media for the development of the tourism industry,” said Rajiv.

“The tagline of Kerala Tourism, ‘Kerala – the Gods on Country’ was once a reality when we consider the climate, the hospitality of our people, infrastructural facilities in the tourism centers etc. However, some recent issues has changed the perspective and we should rectify ourselves to regain our position in the world tourism map,” he added.

He said currently our perspective of tourism is encircling the renowned tourism hotspots like Alappuzha, Munnar, Kovalam, Thekkady etc. We should market the other untapped potential places of the state and for that purpose how the digital media could be used was the key to the session.

Rajiv said we should connect the indigenous cuisines to the tourism hotspots. “Mostly tourists enquire what is the special food in that area and they will be interested to discover new tastes,” said Rajiv.

“Another thing to do is to tell things in a ‘listicle’ format. People will be curious to read things, which is narrated in points; for instance, ‘5 not to missed places to see in Kochi, ‘5 ethnic foods you should not miss while in Kerala’ etc. It will attract more persons to read it,” opined Rajiv.

“Out of the box thinking is necessary and we should adopt new things, then we can move forward successfully,” concluded Rajiv, amidst applause from the delegates for the wonderful ideas.

Anish Kumar PK, former President, ATTOI

Anish Kumar P K, former President of ATTOI and Managing Director of Travel Planners, led a session on ‘Need of Instagram and How to grow followers’. Anil Kumar reiterated the need for engaging more on the social media and said Instagram may surpass Facebook and other platforms in the near future. He has also explained some tips and tricks to increase followers in Instagram.

The post lunch session was conducted by Suresh Babu, CEO of Web Marketing Academy. The subject of the workshop was ‘How to do SEO and Content Marketing in 2019’.

Suresh Babu, CEO of Web Marketing Academy

Suresh Babu explained how a search engine works and how to optimize our blogs and websites, so that our websites would appear in the search results. He also introduced some websites and applications that could be utilized to make the websites presentable.

Shailesh Nair, Vice President of ATTOI, thanked the speakers and moderated the self-introduction session of the delegates. Shailesh of Mystikal Holidays, who is also a Youtuber and social media enthusiast, said the seminar will help the participants in the future marketing endevours through the social media.

Shailesh Nair, Vice President, ATTOI

All the participants expressed satisfaction and said the sessions were so informative and it would definitely help them in the operations of the social media and benefit their businesses. The participants of the seminar included people from the tourism fraternity, social media enthusiasts and the students of KITTS.